The Government of Canada is committed to building a modern, reliable, and secure information technology (IT) platform for the delivery of programs and services to Canadians. Today, the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and minister responsible for Shared Services Canada, announced that Shared Services Canada (SSC) is now offering public cloud computing services for the Government of Canada.

Open government is good government, and these new cloud services will benefit Canadians and their families by increasing access to government data and services. Immediate uses for public cloud services that handle unclassified data could include storing publicly accessible digital collections, such as archival material. It could also enable the analysis of scientific unclassified data sets that are too large to be processed by traditional applications.

Being open also means working with industry experts to reach the best outcomes. As a cloud broker, SSC will work with federal departments to help them select the right solution for their needs from a wide range of cloud services and providers.

Quotes

“These cloud services bring an exciting new era in how federal services and programs will be delivered to Canadians. The cloud will allow the Government of Canada to harness the innovation of private-sector providers to make its information technology more agile. Cloud services will make it easier for Canadians to access new digital services and programs such as geospatial systems which support our scientists and city planners.”

The Honourable Carla QualtroughMinister of Public Services and Procurement and minister responsible for Shared Services Canada

“Modern IT infrastructure is the backbone of better digital service delivery. Responding quickly to the changing needs of Canadians while constantly improving Government of Canada services requires new, agile, Cloud-based solutions.”

The Honourable Scott BrisonPresident of the Treasury Board of Canada

Quick facts

The collaborative procurement process for cloud services resulted in 22 contract awards. Cloud services put in place via these contracts are for unclassified data only.

The information stored on the cloud provides open data to governments, researchers, businesses and Canadians. This data has a variety of uses including emergency response, conservation, transportation, establishing property rights to consumers’ social networking, and tourism.

Cloud computing services will be provided on an as-needed basis, allowing the cost of services to be tailored to federal organizations’ needs.

A separate procurement process for cloud services to handle higher data security requirements will be held at a later date.

The announcement was made at the Cloud First Day event hosted by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. The event brought together leaders from government and industry sectors to share their cloud experiences and best practices.

The Government of Canada (GC) is using private-sector innovation and creativity to respond to the increasing demand for information technology (IT) services and capacity. The use of cloud services will help create the modern infrastructure required for the delivery of programs and services to Canadians.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services — servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and more — over the Internet. Companies offering these services are called cloud providers and typically charge for services based on demand.

These new tools will improve services to Canadians by increasing the responsiveness, flexibility and value for money of the applications used to deliver programs and services. The GC’s first set of cloud services will handle unclassified data only, which can include storing publicly accessible collections, such as archived material, government-generated open data, and big data sets generated by the scientific community.

These types of cloud services will also provide safe environments to allow developers to create new IT applications. For instance, the Correctional Services of Canada uses it to manage technical services and facilities at institutions across Canada. This contract demonstrates the effectiveness of using cloud services in government. The GC will build on this success, which targets unclassified information only.

SSC’s customers in federal organizations now have access to a wide and flexible range of capabilities. They can choose to use cloud computing to process, manage or store data.

So far, SSC has awarded 22 contracts for public cloud computing services, and more will follow. In collaboration with Treasury Board Secretariat, SSC will act as a cloud broker. This means SSC will:

work with departments and agencies to help them select the right solution for their needs